Twenty-Second
Residence 1967-681100
East Street,Leesville,
LAaka
DiseasevilleDepartment
of the Army Headquarters,USATC
- US Army Training Center,TigerLand
AIT (Advanced Infantry Training)

NCO AcademyFort
Polk, Louisiana

Ft. Polk
was a basic training facility as well as an advanced infantry training
center ("Tiger Land") designed specifically for Viet Nam.

Training...Operations...SAR
- Search And Rescue.CAD
- Cordon And Destroy...Village
Cordon / Villager CordonCordon
the village and rope off an inner circle with rope. in the early
morning 1 - 3am - setting up a ring of troops, or cordon, around a village
to stop all entry and exit - effectively prevent any escape.
Shoot / kill or take prisoners all villagers exiting structures, within
the troop circle. Place the dead, wounded prisoner escapes withing
the inner circle. Assume they are attempting to escape.
Quickly flushing out villagers, exactly as they are, clothed or unclothed,
into a ring of rope to prevent disturbing hooch evidence. Cordoning
the villagers usually occurred during the daylight hours, The village
was searched for any enemy and evidence of Viet-Cong. Any attempt
to break out of the village cordon or the villager cordon was met with
lethal force.SAD
- Search And Destroy / "Zipper Missions" - offensive operations designed
to find and destroy enemy forces rather than establish permanent government
control.SAC
- Search And Clear - offensive military operations to sweep through areas
to locate and attack the enemyBlack
Ops...The
fewer individuals involved the easier the associated cover up and denialDeep
Black Ops...Ideally,
should involve one individual isolating/acquiring/taking out one target
or a target and all associates when possible. Ideally, other individuals
participating in briefing, orientation, logistics, transportation, or training
should not be aware of the actual operation and should not know the individual
(one man army) successfully carrying out the op - achieving the intended
end result.Triple
E, EEE - Engagement with Elusive Enemy.ANT
- Assault aNd Torching - torching Vietnam Hooches / Villages for punishment,
exposing associated tunnel network etc.Viet
Cong prisoner taking, search, containment and interrogation.Chemical
Agent Warfare, including napalm, agent orange.Gas
Agent WarfareDouble
E, E & E - Escape and Evasion.Art
(Artillery) coordination.CAS
(Close Air Support) coordinationOperation
and handling of captured NVA/VietCong Weaponry and Ammunition - pistols/handguns,
rifles (semi-automatic and automatic), machine guns, artillery and rockets.Administering
first aid.Safely
moving WIAs and KIAs to DustOff - Position dust made by medical heliocopter
landing and taking offLZs
Landing ZonesRed
LZs - Landing Zones for WIA and KIAsDetermination
of and Reporting MIA statusAmerican
POWs...Responsibilities
of Americans as POWs - ONLY name, rank, serial number and date of birth
PERIOD.Enduring/surviving
tortureVietnam
Jungle ClimatologyVietnam
Delta ClimatologySurvival,
Evasion and EscapeJungle
Survival...the
most dense, more or less impenetrable regions within a tropical rainforest
with an abundance of animal and plant life.River
Delta Survival...A delta
is a low, watery land formed at the mouth of a river. It is formed from
the silt, sand and small rocks that flow downstream in the river and are
deposited in the delta. A delta is often (but not always) shaped
like a triangle (hence its name, delta, a Greek letter that is shaped like
a triangle).NVA
and VC Tunnel locating, searching, destroying..."tunnel
rat"elephant
grassFighting
Holes "foxholes"SpottingScouting
/ Forward Observingrange
findingContinued
night vision training...with
rifle mounted, night vision, StarLight and IR, hand held night vision monoculars
and binocularsSurvivalSurvival
psychologyBasic
survival equipmentShelter
site selection and constructionFire
making and maintenance in all conditionsHeat
management and conservationSignalling
and rescueWater
acquisition and treatmentEdibles
identification, acquisition, testing and preparationWild
medicineNavigation
without aidMedicalReading
funny books (military maps)C's
for military operationsFriendlies
Determination - U.S. troops, allies, or anyone not on the other side.Doubtfuls
Determination - Vietnamese individuals who could not be categorized as
either VietCong or civil offendersSuspect
personnel spotted from ground or aircraftHump
Awareness - Awareness while slogging around on footLaying
Chilly - lying motionlessMad
Minute LightUps - Firing on the enemy with concentrated fire of all weapons
for a brief period of time at maximum rate. Never an purely fear/or
other emotional response.LightUp
tacticsNewbies,
anyone with less time in Vietnam than the you.Importance
of bringing newbies up to snuff - may have to critically rely on a newbie
within hours or days.Detaining
/ Handling Irregulars - armed individuals and groups not members of the
regular armed forces, White Mice (south Vietmanese police), or other internal
security forcesPucker
Factor Assessment - accessing "fear factor", difficulty / risk determinations
of an upcoming mission."rocking
and rolling" - M16A1 on full automatic fireAnticipating
and Working with Shake N Bakes - officers straight out of OCS without any
combat experienceAnticipating
and Handling Skating Shorts.Stand
DownsR&R
- rest and recreation vacations taken during a one-year duty tour in Vietnam...Out-of-country
R & R - Bangkok, Hawaii, Tokyo, Australia, Hong Kong, Manila, Penang,
Taipei, Kuala Lampur, or SingaporeIn-country
R & R at Vung Tau or China Beach

Viet
Nam vet, black soldier friend refused service at restaurant,harrassed
by police officer and kkk members

US Army
Mess Hall waste of food. Feeding the multitude in Leesville, Louisiana
- 107 lbs of steak and 56 gals of milk from the mess hall.

1,500
man levy, from Fort Polk, for a tour of duty from Fort Polk to Vietnam.

Sandy,
Michelle, Sharon and Jim, a service buddy were traveling through Deridder,
Louisiana. A local intoxicated driver drove through a red light and
hit my VW bug on the driver's side door hinges. Sandy was hospitalized
at Fort Polk Army Hospital with broken ribs and lacerated face. I
was removed from the Viet Nam levy and placed on a 90 day stay to take
care of Sandy including getting her to a plastic surgeon at John Sealy
Hospital in Galveston, Texas. Sandy's father loaned us his Plymouth
Valient until an insurance settlement enabled us to purchase a new 1968
Chevrolet Camero. Hocking Sharon's radio.